1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a similar image providing device, method and program storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, due to the spread of CT (Computed Tomography) and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) medical devices, digitalized diagnostic images can be acquired easily. Further, in hospitals, the large amount of diagnostic images that are acquired daily are filed electronically and can be stored easily, and diagnostic images can be used in common by plural doctors.
Usually, an image reading report, that expresses an opinion on an image and results of diagnosis that are obtained from reading the image, is attached to the diagnostic image. Therefore, these diagnostic images can be used as a database of a large number of cases. Thus, attempts have been made to make this large amount of accumulated cases useful for medical diagnoses. As one example, an attempt has been made to increase the accuracy of diagnosis by retrieving cases that are appended to images that are similar to an image to be diagnosed and referring to the results of the diagnoses that are written in the retrieved cases.